I am the luckiest man alive, after being run down by a 38m Mariner Flybridge doing over 20 knots on its way from Sydney to the Gold Coast on Friday at SWR,
We had just finished watching Couta hook up on a good size fish at about 1km out from the Jail House, we were on the way back in from out wide.
Grant pointed out to me a boat approaching on my left from the south,
We turned to left to run parallel to it thinking there would be plenty of room between us
Grant Ashwell was 20m behind me and Steven [Couta] was another 20m behind Grant,
When It was about 100m out from us we new it was traveling very fast and a lot closer that we would have liked, but still room to miss us by about 30m and of course he would see us and turn away any minute now,
Then all of a sudden it turned in on me it was only 30m away at this stage,
Holy Shit this thing is coming straight for me,
I could see the skipper in the Flybridge with his head down he didn't see us,
Grant was yelling from behind look out he can't see us,
Then it dawned on me I was going to die any seconds now,
Then just before the impact I rolled to the left out of the Kayak, it was instinct,
We hit head on,
I could feel myself shoot straight under the boat thinking the props are going to get me any second now, then bang It was like I was in a big washing machine and then I popped up,
The first thing I did was looked down to see if I was all there, I couldn't believe my luck
I looked over to see my yak which had a big holes carved in it from the prop but was still floating at one end so hung on until they picked me up,
The skipper offered me a change of cloths, food, water, beer,he was still a bit stunned with what had happened,
He said the boat was on autopilot and the boat will turn from side to side in a bit of swell,
It was like playing Russian Roulette which way was it going to turn,
They dropped me and the yak off at the nearest port which was Coffs Harbour, 2 hours away,
Clive, Steven and Dan were kind enough to drive there to pick me up and head back to camp, Thank Guys,
Grant told me later that he was only 2m from going under him self before the boat stopped,
I want to thank Josh [Yakabbout] for helping out with a Red Hobie Adventure to get me out on the water again,
We had just finished watching Couta hook up on a good size fish at about 1km out from the Jail House, we were on the way back in from out wide.
Grant pointed out to me a boat approaching on my left from the south,
We turned to left to run parallel to it thinking there would be plenty of room between us
Grant Ashwell was 20m behind me and Steven [Couta] was another 20m behind Grant,
When It was about 100m out from us we new it was traveling very fast and a lot closer that we would have liked, but still room to miss us by about 30m and of course he would see us and turn away any minute now,
Then all of a sudden it turned in on me it was only 30m away at this stage,
Holy Shit this thing is coming straight for me,
I could see the skipper in the Flybridge with his head down he didn't see us,
Grant was yelling from behind look out he can't see us,
Then it dawned on me I was going to die any seconds now,
Then just before the impact I rolled to the left out of the Kayak, it was instinct,
We hit head on,
I could feel myself shoot straight under the boat thinking the props are going to get me any second now, then bang It was like I was in a big washing machine and then I popped up,
The first thing I did was looked down to see if I was all there, I couldn't believe my luck
I looked over to see my yak which had a big holes carved in it from the prop but was still floating at one end so hung on until they picked me up,
The skipper offered me a change of cloths, food, water, beer,he was still a bit stunned with what had happened,
He said the boat was on autopilot and the boat will turn from side to side in a bit of swell,
It was like playing Russian Roulette which way was it going to turn,
They dropped me and the yak off at the nearest port which was Coffs Harbour, 2 hours away,
Clive, Steven and Dan were kind enough to drive there to pick me up and head back to camp, Thank Guys,
Grant told me later that he was only 2m from going under him self before the boat stopped,
I want to thank Josh [Yakabbout] for helping out with a Red Hobie Adventure to get me out on the water again,